Auggie & Me

August 3, 2015
Few first novels beget a franchise, but Palacio's Wonder (2012), about a boy with a severe facial deformity, is a phenomenon. A bestseller since publication, it has also spawned a standalone companion book, 365 Days of Wonder: Mr. Browne's Book of Precepts (2014). But despite requests from readers for a sequel, Palacio writes in her introduction to this collection of three previously released e-singles, "I can guarantee that... the de facto sequel will never be written." Instead she offers the back stories of three kids in Auggie Pullman's orbit, beginning with the "much-loathed" Julian, who suffers from nightmares and anxiety. Julian's story is the most didactic, but it will have classroom use as an "anatomy of a bully" lesson, suggesting that readers look behind a mean-spirited act to understand what drives it. Readers also spend time with Christopher, Auggie's best friend until his family moved to Connecticut, and Charlotte, a classmate chosen to help Auggie transition from homeschooling to fifth grade. Readers who wanted more about Auggie will flock to this. Ages 8â12. Agent: Alyssa Eisner Henkin, Trident Media.

In the companion novel to Wonder, (2012) three students at Beecher Prep middle school tell stories that connect with Auggie Pullman's dramatic arrival into their worlds. "Sometimes friendships are hard," and friendship with Auggie Pullman is a special challenge. He is different. He looks different, and that's not easy in middle school. He has a "severe craniofacial difference," facial features that, even after many surgeries over the years, look like "the drippings on the side of a candle." Now, Palacio zeros in on three characters: Julian, the bully; Auggie's oldest friend, Christopher; and Charlotte, the girl who is nice to Auggie but never especially friendly. Auggie is the common thread in their stories, but he's behind the scenes here, peripheral to their first-person narratives. Each character relates a story that includes an epiphany about friendship, family, and life. Auggie is the catalyst for transformations in their lives, but readers will see sides of characters Auggie never would have known. Originally published as short e-books, the stories are explorations of kindness, each character demonstrating how it takes bravery to be kind, how, in the tricky business of navigating new situations, "it's always better to err on the side of kindness." Not only a companion to Wonder, but a wonder in itself. (Fiction. 8-14) COPYRIGHT(1) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.